


Bright

by Mistflyer1102



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Republic Commando Series - Karen Traviss
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:53:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27336721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mistflyer1102/pseuds/Mistflyer1102
Summary: Little moments can create lasting memories.
Relationships: RC-1136 | IC-1136 | Darman Skirata/Etain Tur-Mukan
Comments: 10
Kudos: 17





	1. First Meeting

He had the urge to clear the ground, to take point and look for threats.

But Darman refrained from moving ahead, and instead kept pace with the young Padawan Commander Etain Tur-Mukan as she led him through the woods, along the river, only coming to a stop when they came to the edge of what looked like a dirt road.Qiilura looked stranger, more threatening in the darkness, he decided, but the commander had been there longer, and he trusted that she knew where she was going, and what she was doing. He could see she was still wet from where he’d had to push her into the river to avoid her lightsaber, when she had mistaken him for Ghez Hokan and charged, but the squelching from her movements wasn’t as loud as he had initially feared. 

She knelt, staring intently across the grasses that lined both sides of the road for a few moments, and he knelt beside her, using his scanners to check the area for threats. Aside from the gdans and the occasional warren, he couldn’t see or pick up anything remotely close to a severe threat, but he also knew that she could pick up things through the Force. True to her word, she didn’t seem to be straining under the weight of the packs he’d allowed her to carry, but she was also shivering however minutely. He could see it in the glow of the moon above them.

“Ma’am—” he began carefully. 

“Shh,” she whispered back, not turning back to face him as she looked across the grasses again. He fell quiet, briefly wondering as to what she was picking up that he was missing, but he waited, checking their surroundings again through his helmet’s scanners. She then shifted in place, catching his attention. “What is it?” she whispered, tilting her head slightly to glance back at him.

“What is the plan for getting to our destination?”

“Plan?” she repeated, sounding uncertain. Darman blinked, but before he could clarify his question, she whispered, “Oh. Um, we’ll follow the river back to the woods, cut through, and then through barq fields to get back to the farmhouse, er, specifically to the place where I’ve been lying low for the past week or so.” She shuddered, moving into a lower crouch. “We’ll have to follow the paths that have already been made in the fields, some of Hokan’s men already crashed through it. I’ll, uh, lead the way on that one.”

Darman nodded, not missing the way her voice caught at the end there. “And then once we are through the fields?”

“We keep a low profile while walking through the farm. There’s a barn on the opposite side that I’ve been staying in, we’ll both stay there for now. If all goes well, then the owner will already know about you being there with me. At least, we’ll stay there until it’s time to find the rest of your squad. From what I have seen, Hokan hasn’t been methodical about searching for me. And you, if he already knows you’re here,” she whispered, turning around in place and kneeling as she faced him. “Does he?”

“It is possible, we had a crash landing. That’s how I got separated from my squad,” Darman said, shifting so that he was kneeling in front of her. “We should operate on the assumption that he knows that someone from the Republic is here.”

She let out a small snort, startling him. “Oh, he _definitely_ knows someone from the Republic is here,” she whispered, eyes scanning his face before she finally made eye contact with him. It was a bit unnerving, given he was still wearing his helmet, but she finally looked away again. “Master Fulier and I were here for some time before Master Fulier was arrested, we were investigating Doctor Uthan at the request of the High Council,” she admitted, placing a hand on the ground to steady herself. “Master Fulier…he got involved with a local brawl, and then got arrested. He was killed recently,” she said, voice wavering so slightly that he wondered if she realized it herself.

He had to ask, however insensitive it may be. “Are you certain?”

She nodded stiffly. “We Jedi…teachers and students, we become attuned to each other in the Force. I could find Master Fulier better than, say, my former classmates since I haven’t seen or interacted with them since we became Padawans,” she whispered, almost absently pushing the dirt around with her fingers. “I felt the moment Master Fulier was killed, and I can’t sense him anymore.”

Darman nodded. He’d learned that while he was still on Kamino, that Jedi could sense not only non-Force-sensitives, but each other as well. What he hadn’t realized, was the level of the connection they had with each other. _Almost like us with our original squadmates. And maybe I will get to that someday with Niner, Atin and Fi, once I catch up to them here._ “General Zey wasn’t sure when he briefed us on this mission. Commander Jusik said that General Fulier hadn’t reported in for a few weeks at that point,” he said, tilting his head slightly when he saw a minute flinch in her silhouette. “Valaqil, a Gurlanin native to Qiilura, he said that he believed Fulier was betrayed by a local and possibly killed, but that was also a few days ago,” he added after a moment, wondering if she was curious about the Republic’s perception of her current situation.

“Oh.” She was quiet for a moment, but a second later, he thought he heard her mutter something under her breath about Jusik and ‘picture perfect’. He surmised that she knew Jusik then, despite the two Padawans having different masters. Were rivalries common among Jedi? He didn’t know, and hoped that she would stay focused on the here and now whatever the case may be with her and Commander Jusik. Rivalries amongst squads were common on Kamino, especially between Sergeant Skirata’s squads and Sergeant Vau’s squads, but at least Darman knew they were all trained to set those aside and stay focused on the target when on a mission. 

Before he could ask, however, she shook her head. “Okay, well, at least we know that the plans are out of Hokan’s hands,” she finally whispered, shifting in place to turn back around. Ignoring the faint squelching sound of wet fabric as she moved, she shifted from her kneeling position back to the crouch. “It was a local who betrayed Master Fulier, which is why we need to use caution around Birhan, the farmer who owns the place we’re going to,” she added as she began to tiptoe forward, hugging the edge of the road while still remaining in the grasses. “The gdans will only be scared of us for so long before they decide that they’re hungry. Jinart will probably be even more irritated with me if I can’t get you back to the farm in one piece.”

“Yes, ma’am. Who is Jinart?”

Another twitch. Had he overstepped his boundaries by asking? 

“Jinart…I’m not sure how she’s connected to Birhan’s family, but so far, she’s the one person on Qiilura who knows who I really am, knows who you are, and hasn’t turned either of us in to Hokan and his men yet. Which means she has a reason invested in our survival, but I don’t know what that is yet,” she said as she started to move forward again, head turning as she scanned across the grasses again.

He saw the warren hole through the infrared before she did. Darman reached out and caught her shoulder, keeping her from pitching forward onto her face, pack and all, as her foot slid forward into the warren. She froze, then muttered something under her breath again as she gingerly eased her foot out. “Thank you, Darman,” she whispered as he released her shoulder.

“You’re welcome, ma’am.”


	2. Instinct

_ Fear. Worry. Stress. Reassurance. Comfort. Resolution. And...hope? _

Etain blinked, momentarily surprised at the last undercurrent of emotion she felt when surveying the abandoned home that Jinart had sent her and Darman to as the first safe house. She stood in the front door, looking into the rest of the room as Darman remained outside, rearranging their gear in the borrowed handcart. She could sense his annoyance warring with concern and...disappointment? Etain swallowed as she surveyed the room again, hugging herself as she tried to focus again on just the room in front of her. The annoyance at least, she imagined, was for her: she hadn’t even thought to keep an eye on the front door and their gear as Darman cleared the house. Concern, most likely because he still had to find his squad and complete his mission. Disappointment...she bit back a twinge of her own frustration. Kamino…Darman had mentioned Kamino before. What had the instructors taught the men about Jedi? Had Master Fulier known that this army existed and didn’t say anything to her? She couldn’t do something if she didn’t know about it in the first place, she had not been trained to be a commander. Force, she could barely keep up as a Jedi even after being trained for it her entire life.

_ Why didn’t you say anything, if you knew, Master? _

_ Does the where, why, who, or how even matter anymore?  _

Etain shook her head, pulling herself out of her thoughts. She used the Force to close the storage door, even though there was no hiding the fact that the lock had been forced. Maybe the original occupants, if they ever returned, would assume bandits or Hokan’s men raided it. Then she turned and used the Force to close the outer door, an irrational paranoia stemming from one too many close scrapes when she was younger surfacing in that moment. She wrapped her worn cloak around herself tighter as she walked back to the handcart, where Darman waited patiently for her. He was focused and back on task again. Etian envied his ability to switch into that mindset seemingly effortlessly, but she still inclined her head to him as she moved to the back to push the cart again.

“Do you want to take a break? You’ve already been at it for a while,” Darman said, starting to turn around towards the back.

“No, it’s all right. The next farm can’t be far,” she said as she walked past him towards the back of the cart. She knew Darman held the maps in his datapad, and she wasn’t going to push him with questions any further today. She glanced over her shoulder down the empty dirt road, biting her lip when she saw that even if their footprints were being washed away in the intermittent rain, the cart tracks were not.  _ Hopefully Hokan will assume those are from just another farmer trying to get their harvest in on time _ . The ill feeling in her gut that had started when they first arrived at the empty house still lingered. She hoped it didn’t mean that Hokan was about to find them. She wasn’t ready for a confrontation with Hokan just yet. If Hokan killed Master Fulier, then she stood no chance, commando with her or not. One of them had to continue the mission, and Darman was better trained to do so. At most, Etain figured she could slow Hokan down enough for Darman to escape. 

“Do you think we’re being followed?”

_ Right _ . “No, just a bad gut feeling,” she said, squinting down the road. She looked back at Darman, who was watching her carefully. “I can’t tell specifically the why, just that either something is about to happen, especially if we’re not careful, or something bad has already happened elsewhere, and that something bad will affect us later.” She blinked at the flicker of emotion across Darman’s face-- _ worry, fear, concern _ \--and then mentally kicked herself at her poor choice of words. His squad was still out there somewhere, and he was still worried about his squad. “I think your squadmates are still fine, I bet Jinart will track us down if something were to happen to them. So, in that case, no news is good news,” she said, nearly biting her tongue to keep from babbling further in her rush to reassure him. 

She’d tried to keep her tone light, but from the glimpse she caught of the dubious look on his face, she doubted it worked. She stifled a sigh as she turned back to the cart, and then said “What I meant is that I feel uneasy right now because we’re exposed, not because something happened somewhere else.” She hesitated, and then reached out to rest a hand on his forearm as she glanced at him. “We’ll know, I’m sure of it, if something were to happen.”

He nodded, clearly mulling over her words. “Thank you,” he finally said, turning to her. He then tilted his head, and remarked, “Listening to your instincts is important too. Just let me know if it gets worse, I’m guessing you’re picking up more with the Force than I am at the moment, and every bit of warning will help the two of us in the end.”

“No, I’m not really picking up as much as you think,” she admitted, shrugging a shoulder before turning to lift the cart. “At the most, I could tell you useless information about this house, but nothing about why I’m getting a bad feeling about being on this road right now.” She gritted her teeth as she pushed the cart up, and then, with a little assistance from the Force, began to push it forward again.

Darman fell in step beside her. “What sort of information?” he asked curiously.

Etain shrugged. “Impressions, really. Strong enough emotions can leave imprints in the Force, and if I focus hard enough, I can pick them out from the general background noise. I don’t know who lived in that house, but I could tell you that they were scared at first, and then something happened, and they seemed to feel better in general before they seemed to settle on a decision. Maybe they were not comfortable providing shelter to us, given Hokan’s attitude to traitors, and decided to leave so they could avoid us and not make an enemy of Jinart,” she explained, glancing at him. “Of course, I’m theorizing on their reasons, we’ll never actually know for certain,” she said, shrugging a shoulder before returning her attention forward. The dirt road stretched long ahead of them and curved out of sight, but Etain was determined not to complain. 

“That could be helpful. It gives us a possibility to consider what to expect at the next house, even if the occupants are there,” Darman pointed out. “We know they’re afraid of Hokan, they may be afraid of us, and fear can drive beings to either focus on survival or make irrational decisions. Decisions that we will need to be ready for when the time comes. The difference between us and them is that we’ll be ready, therefore more level-headed, when we have to act and think quickly. When we get there, we know that they will either be there and take us in, or be gone as well.”

Etain glanced at him. He made planning ahead in a warzone, with very limited information due to no communications, seem so effortless, but she also had to wonder how those lessons were drilled into him in the first place. It seemed rude to ask though, especially if she theoretically was supposed to already know that information. She bit her tongue to hold back her questions, and then nodded. “I suppose,” she said finally, looking ahead again.

Darman either heard but ignored her, or didn’t hear what she said, focused as he was on pulling out his datapad and calling up the map that Jinart had given them when they were still at Birhan’s. “We should work on contingency plans for each scenario that we may encounter at the next house. As much as we can use the night for cover, we do need to rest somewhere. We should also plan for a potential ambush at any point during the night or the day. We’ll secure the perimeter first, and then set camp up in a way that we can grab the most critical items in the event we need to run,” he said, glancing across the fields before returning his attention to the road ahead of them again. “We only have a kilometer and a half until the next safe house, which I think will be enough time to set up a few plans,” he added, glancing at her before looking ahead again.

_ No, the little details and what-ifs don’t matter anymore.  _

“Should we also have hand signals?” Etain asked, glancing at him. “Just in case...um, they’re closer than we think they are? Or if we don’t want to give our positions away? I can sense anyone approaching if we’re inside a building, but depending on how last minute it is, I don’t know if I can verbally warn you in time. Or if I shouldn’t be saying as much aloud in the first place if we’re in company,” she said, drawing her cloak around herself tighter as the first few raindrops began to fall. 

He nodded thoughtfully. “I can give you a crash course on the basic hand signals, the ones we’ll probably need to know for now are the ones for quantity and location. If we’re with allies, like our hosts, I think it should be safe to say something aloud, provided it’s not loud enough for the enemy to hear,” he said, stuffing his datapad back into an inside cloak pocket. “We’ll start with signals with one hand, then with two hands, it’s not much difference but the assumption is that you’re carrying a weapon with the other hand,” he explained as he pushed his sleeves back a bit.

Etain nodded, biting her lip. She could learn quickly, she’d done it before.

_ We’re in a war right now. I have to act now. _


	3. Lesson

When she lifted her head, towel still in hand, Darman barely recognized her because of the faint bruises.

He leaned to the side without thinking, already reaching for the small medkit he kept near him as Etain gingerly touched the bruise that had formed on the side of her face. “I guess we were closer to the blast...what do you call it, the stuff that flies back at you? I think I was closer to that than I realized when we took out that hillside,” she admitted, voice barely audible as she pushed herself up from the river bank where she’d been washing her face after their mock lightsaber sparring match. Daywings scattered as she shifted from kneeling to sitting, tucking her legs underneath herself. The morning sun was still climbing in the sky, but the autumn chill lingered in the air, a chill that Darman still felt through the black bodysuit he’d opted to keep on overnight. The thicket where they had taken cover since their scrape with Ghez Hokan and Hokan’s droids was more hindrance now that Darman realized he couldn’t see the grounds beyond, towards the road. Yet, it was still a good location since they still had space for a makeshift camp, along with an available water source.

He’d taken advantage of the space for the impromptu lightsaber sparring match earlier, which seemed to take her mind off of whatever she had been dwelling on earlier that morning. If he had to guess, he suspected she was still haunted by the Umbaran she’d killed over twenty-four hours ago, at the supposedly safe house that betrayed them. He also felt more reassured now that he knew the rest of his squad was enroute, that they would soon be back on track with their mission, could back each other up better, and operate more efficiently. 

“Shrapnel. Did you get cut by anything sharp?” he asked, starting to dig through the kit, but paused when she shook her head. 

“No, just all bruises. I’ll live,” she said, grimacing as she stretched her arms. “As long as I can walk and move, I’ll be fine,” she added as she twisted her body slightly, straining a bit. Darman internally winced at the barely-audible  _ crick _ , but relaxed when she straightened and didn’t seem to wince in pain. “How much time left until they arrive?” she asked, glancing at him.

“Still forty-five standard minutes, they had to take the long way around a Separatist patrol, and they’re dragging that prisoner around.” He hesitated, and then said, “In the meantime, while we wait for them to catch up, I have an idea. You’re not going to like it since it will probably make you more sore, but it will help you later down the road,” he said, pushing himself up to his feet.

Etain hummed as she set her towel down “I think I’m sore enough right now that I won’t feel anything new,” she said, brushing some hair out of her face. “What were you thinking?”

“Lessons on hand-to-hand combat. Your lightsaber is good for close quarters, but in the event you lose it and can’t find it while your opponent is still there, you’ll want to have a backup plan,” he said, moving to where he’d laid out their supplies the night before. He glanced at her as he uncovered one of the packs. “Unless you’ve never lost your lightsaber before?” he asked, mentally recalling from the lessons on Kamino that Jedi almost never lost what few possessions they had, and the lightsaber was among those possessions that the Jedi were extremely careful with. 

Etain opened her mouth, hesitated, bit her lip, and then looked away.

Darman paused, studying her reaction carefully. She almost looked embarrassed as she fidgeted in place, unable to meet his eye as her fingers flexed in the grasses. She finally let out a small huff, still looking away before turning back to face him. “No...I have definitely lost my lightsaber before. Not since becoming a Padawan though. But, and I’m not trying to justify anything, it happens to Jedi students a lot more than you think it would,” she admitted, cheeks turning pink as she looked back down at her hands, folding them in her lap. “Improvisation without your lightsaber was something you learned pretty quickly, especially in class when the masters were watching.”

Darman nodded, humming thoughtfully as he mentally added that note to the list of things that the Kaminoans had not covered in their courses, but would probably be helpful to know in the future. “Improvisation can help, but having a backup plan can give you an upper hand in a fight and make the difference between life and death,” he said, glancing back at her. “Unless you don’t want to learn?”

Etain looked up sharply. “What? Of course I do, if you’re still willing to teach,” she said, shifting her position before she pushed herself to her feet, brushing grass and twigs off of herself, and then walked, albeit slightly stiffly, to where she had placed her packs the night before. 

Darman shook his head, smiling slightly to himself as he knelt beside the brook to wet a towel. He waved away a cloud of daywings before placing the towel into water. He swished it a bit, wrung it out, and then wiped his face as he turned back to the camp. Etain, he saw, was slowly pulling her hair back into a loose ponytail and wincing slightly with every other movement.  _ Warm-ups first, then basics _ . If they had time, depending how much longer they were on Qiilura, then he would teach her a few more advanced techniques. But he recognized that their earlier blast had taken more out of her than him, since he’d had his armor for protection. He planned not to push her farther than he had already today. They both still needed to be ready to either run or fight in case of an ambush.

“Ready?” he asked cheerfully, setting the towel aside on a crate as he grinned slightly when he caught her scowl. Even though she had been under the threat of death and been on the run for weeks before the war ever started, Darman suspected she was still not what Sergeant Skirata would call ‘a morning person’. She never complained or otherwise slowed them down, but he’d still caught, out of the corner of his eye, a scowl with pinched brows she’d made at the cart, hours before when she thought he wasn’t looking at her. She hadn’t been very talkative earlier either, not really until they were well underway with their lightsaber sparring match and he kept pushing her.

“Almost.” She had shed her outer cloak, and was rolling the draping portion of her tunic sleeves before folding it and stuffing it between her skin and another layer of fabric. “I know it’s a good idea to practice in conditions similar to what you’re going to be facing, they told us that in class, but these easily get in the way,” she said as she repeated the process with the other sleeve. Once she was satisfied with her work, she turned back to him. “Okay, what’s the first thing we do?”

“Warm-ups. You’re stiff now, I’m still feeling the aches from earlier, and we could both injure ourselves if we’re not careful,” he said, walking over so that he stood next to her, facing the same direction. “We’ll start with rotating the neck, and then move onto the shoulders,” he said, tilting his head slowly for a few seconds before rotating it. “So, as we do this, and as I teach you, there are three key points to keep in mind when you’re fighting without a weapon against an opponent in close-quarters combat, droid or not,” he said, glancing at her to see that she had started to follow his instructions despite moving a little more slowly than he would have expected.

Etain nodded. “Okay, what’s the first?”

“One, stay aware of your environment. Were you backed into a corner? Do you have a means of escape? Are there other people around? Witnesses can make or break a fight. Some may choose to interfere, report the fight, or just run away. You also need to decide right there and then, are the witnesses going to be collateral damage, or will you risk injury to yourself to save them?” he said, moving to rolling his shoulders backwards. He heard a faint rustle of clothing as she moved to copy his change in movement. He bet he could guess which way the Jedi traditionally went, given her squeamishness over the death of the Umbaran soldier, but he also needed her to stay alive. 

“Okay, environment. What’s the next one?”

“Weaponry. Hand-to-hand obviously implies that there aren’t weapons involved, but that can change quickly. Sergeant Skirata always carried at least a knife on his person, even when he wasn’t wearing his armor, but you could never tell just by looking at him. Your opponent may have something hidden in their person and they’re just waiting for you to get closer for them to use it effectively. This could be anything from a knife, vibroblade, or even a small blaster pistol,” Darman explained, wincing slightly at the faint  _ crack _ that came from Etain. “Don’t push yourself too hard. The point is to warm up, not cause further injury,” he said, glancing at her in time to see her scrunch her nose.

She just nodded in response, pausing the shoulder rolls long enough to rub a spot on her shoulder for a few minutes. She then let out a few breaths before going back to rolling her shoulders, albeit more slowly than before. “What’s the third thing to remember?” she asked.

Darman was quiet for a moment. He had a feeling she wasn’t going to like this, once again because of the incident with the Umbaran soldier. He stopped what he was doing, and then moved to stand in front of her. She paused in her movements, watching him carefully. “The third thing to remember is the outcome. Even before the fight starts, you have to be ready to kill. Your opponent is most likely not going to have the same hesitations you have about killing. In fact, they may have already made the decision to kill you,” he said quietly, watching her. He could almost see something flicker in her eyes, her mouth turn down slightly, but to his mild surprise, she held her peace. “You may have to do it with your hands too, assuming you do not have a weapon in hand.” He held up his hands. “You can do a lot of damage with just your fingers in the right spots.”

Etain swallowed. “Well, we are at war right now. I imagine that when I return to the Temple, some of the rules there will have changed as well,” she said, voice steady despite faint traces of uneasiness he could see in her eyes. She straightened her stance. “What’s next?”

Darman had to resist the urge to arch a brow, lest he give away his mild surprise. She was catching on more quickly than he had privately feared, which reassured him a little more about their chances of surviving this operation. “Right. Well, copy my stance, and I’ll walk you through the basic blocks and attacks,” he said, testing the ground underneath a foot before adopting a stance, arms raised to protect his face. “Make sure the ground beneath you is solid,” he instructed, testing the ground again as he mentally prepared himself for the first set of blocks.

Etain nodded, swallowing before copying his position.

He waited until she looked back at him and nodded once to confirm she was ready before he began the next lesson.


	4. Lesson #2

She could hear everything around her, but she dared not open her eyes.

Insects chirped on her left, almost drowned out by the bubbling of the brook that was behind her. She could hear the soft crackling of grasses as a pair of gdans nosed around in the dirt to her right despite the lingering daylight, and the soft rustling as a breeze swept through the thicket. Etain tried to focus on the steady thrum of her heartbeat to center herself, to relax, but her heart still felt like it was beating rapidly against her chest both from the exertion of the afternoon, and from the anticipation of Darman’s next strike. She didn’t know how much time had passed since they moved on from warmups to actual basic hand-to-hand combat, just that she had landed on her rear far too many times than she was willing to admit.

“Try closing your eyes this time, maybe you’re thinking more about your blocks and strikes than you really need to. You’re not going to hurt me as easily as you think you are,” Darman had suggested as she brushed twigs and dry grass off of herself after the last attempt. 

“Turning this into a Force lesson too?” she’d asked dryly as she adjusted her tunic sleeves. She had done similar exercises before at the Temple, when she was still an initiate, but with a lightsaber as her weapon and a remote as her opponent. The numbness was the same though, even if it was concentrated in patches this time as opposed to the general sense of numbness that would surround the spot where the laser made contact with her.

Darman shrugged as he shifted his stance. “The more practice, the better, right?” he pointed out as he relaxed his posture.

Etain couldn’t argue that. So she’d closed her eyes, and tried to relax her limbs and settle her mind so she could reach out with the Force this time.

Darman started pacing about a minute or so after she had closed her eyes. She could hear his footsteps moving left, then right, and then a few more steps back and then to the left so that he now stood at an angle from her. She let out a slow exhale as she focused on his steady presence, keeping her hands up and close to her face as he had shown her earlier. She then tilted her head as she tried to gauge his state of mind — calm, almost bored, slightly distracted — and then she swallowed and shifted her arms to better protect her middle. _What is he waiting for?_ She began to frown, feeling the seconds slowly begin to stretch into minutes. Then she started to shift her own stance, the curiosity and concern of an active threat creeping through her veins.

A flare in the Force was her only warning.

She let out a small “eep!” even as she brought one arm to block Darman’s first strike, and then brought the same arm down to block his second strike, like he had shown her earlier. Keeping her eyes squeezed shut, she struck out, aiming a punch for his gut, but met air instead. She then twisted to avoid the next strike that she knew was coming for her back. She then opened her eyes without thinking in time to see Darman turning and readjusting his stance. She then tried to sweep Darman’s extended leg out from underneath him, similar to what he had done on her fourth attempt. Or third, she couldn’t remember. He was fast though, body-checking her with a hip in the two seconds that she was balanced on one leg. She swore in Huttese as she felt herself go airborne seconds before she landed on her back this time, the jolt of pain dulled by the cool mud she could feel through her tunic. She also could feel every little bruise and aches she’d already collected from the sparring matches alone this afternoon, never mind the explosions fromhours earlier. She just lay there for a few minutes, eyes fluttering close as she tried to breathe through the aches.

“That’s it. I don’t care what the masters say about mixing fighting techniques. I’m—I’m incorporating whatever…whatever footwork I can into this next time,” she said, pausing to gasp in between words. She stared up at the gray sky, blinking when Darman’s face unexpectedly appeared in her field of vision.

“Good idea. But, and this is a recommendation, I’d suggest getting a hang of the basics first. Learn the rules, then you can break them,” he said, offering a hand. “For what’s worth, I think you lasted longer that last time with your eyes closed. While I don’t recommend going into every fight like that, I think it may have helped you from thinking about your movements too much, and just going with it,” he added, tilting his head when she shook her head. “Can’t get up?” he asked, frowning as he started to kneel.

She shook her head minutely again, and he paused in a crouch. “You know what, I decided I’m good down here for now, thank you,” she said, resting her hand on her stomach as she scrunching her nose at a twinge in her back. _What did I land on?_ “Give me a couple of minutes to catch my breath, I’ll be fine. Promise,” she said, offering what she hoped was a reassuring smile. She did not feel it herself due to the aching sensation that was settling in her limbs. “Then…then we can go again, I think I made a little bit of progress that time.”

Darman shook his head, and she resisted the urge to frown. “Perhaps not, ma’am. My sergeant isn’t going to be too pleased with me if you’re too stiff to move when we need to move out,” he said, the corner of his mouth twitching as he knelt down beside her. “Can you give me a sitrep of your physical condition?” he asked, frowning when Etain blinked at him.

Her momentary annoyance at the address faded almost right away. “Sitrep?”

“Situation report. Do you need pain medication?”

_What?_ “No, no, nothing broken, just a little soreness that I can deal with. I just want to lie down here for another minute,” she said, closing her eyes as she tried to slow down her heart rate. _In, out, in, out_. She heard and sensed him get up from his position at her side. “What is your squad’s ETA?” she asked without opening her eyes. The earthy smell of the mud below her was overpowering from this position, but for reasons she couldn’t understand, it also had a calming effect on her. _Maybe because I have something else to focus on other than my back._

She heard a few clicks. “Fifteen standard minutes.”

Etain gritted her teeth, and then forced herself to roll over on her side. She gritted her teeth as she sat up, and then gingerly began to shake out what dead leaves and twigs that she could from her hair. She then slowly, mindful of the aches, begin to pull it back up and out of her face. She looked up when a shadow fell over her, and then smiled briefly when she saw Darman offering his hand out to her again. “Thanks,” she said as she took his hand, inhaling sharply through her nose as she stood up, bitting her lip as she remembered every other little place on her body that was probably developing its own bruise now. She took a few deep breaths before testing her balance even as she released Darman’s hand. “Well, if I can’t move in a couple hours, we can tell your sergeant that I slept on my back funny last night,” she suggested, keeping her tone light as she gestured around the camp. Force, she was beginning to regret not paying closer attention to Master Che’s healing lessons now. “There are plenty of roots around here to corroborate that,” she said, wincing as she heard a faint _crick_ in her back. 

Darman arched a brow. “Are you certain you don’t need pain meds? We do need you to be functional.”

_Functional, not dead weight_. Her mind supplied the extra words. She felt she was borderline dead weight as it was, being a Padawan with a faint grasp of the Force and next to no idea of the overall conflict since she had been out of communication for weeks by the time the war started. She nodded, biting her lip. “Pain meds should be kept for emergencies. Me insisting on a rematch does not constitute as an emergency,” she said, brushing a few dead leaves off her shoulder. She gestured to her shelter. “Ah, please excuse me, I’m going to go clean up then,” she said, rolling her shoulder first, then her neck as she walked over to the rock where she had left her cloak earlier.

Darman nodded. “I’m going to go wash off, and then rig something up for our Weequay friend.” He inclined his head toward her. “Good session today, for a start.”

Etain nodded, giving him a smile that she hoped didn’t convey her embarrassment. She suspected he was humoring her, given he had knocked her down all five matches, but she still said, “Thank you, Darman. For that, and all the lessons today.”

“Of course, ma’am.”

Etain bit her lip to refrain from commenting on the term of address, and instead turned to walk back to her small shelter. She wrapped the dirty cloak into a ball, and set it down to the side next to one of her two packs. She still had the holocharts tucked away in one of the packs, and she checked the smallest pockets on the other pack to make sure the charts were still there.

Despite everything she had learned int he past few days, she suspected she still had a ways to go before she could really be less of a liability to the squad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was an unplanned hiatus *facepalm* Long story short, stuff happened and things got crazy here.

**Author's Note:**

> Star Wars and all related media belong to Disney.
> 
>  **Note** : This story will start out as ‘missing moments’, but will eventually diverge a bit from canon.


End file.
